Fabio Quartararo finished the last day of the season in 12th place in the tests in Valencia. The Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™ rider finished the 2022/2023 season in 10th place overall and hopes to improve significantly in the next season.
In the debrief, the French rider talked about the feelings of the new bike for the upcoming season.
– ‘ The new bike had a lot of work to do, especially in terms of aerodynamics. I think we made a step forward in that aspect, but we need to change the balance of the bike. We didn’t have enough time because we started an hour later and I think we need to adjust the bike, we tried a new fairing and the new engine is very similar to the old one, but slightly better. I will now have a meeting with Yamaha to discuss today’s day, I think the new aerodynamics are good for the next season. There is a lot to develop and evolve, but I hope for much more, of course we are still far from the next season, but we are still far from the front riders. Today it was very windy and cold which didn’t help much, in Malaysia we will be better testing because it has very important corners for us to develop the bike. We are still far from what we want and I hope that these three days we have in Malaysia will allow us to evolve a lot.
Questioned about the new teammate and how he can help in the evolution of the bike for the next season, Fábio replied: ‘ It’s difficult to say yet, because Alex is still on the first day and the sensations he had today are more for him than for us. The conditions were also not ideal and it’s difficult to be on the same page. In Malaysia, I think we will have to talk more to evolve, but at this moment, with one day of testing, it doesn’t justify talking to him.
Fabio Quartaro also spoke about the importance of the tests in Malaysia for Yamaha and to understand the evolution of the bike.
– ‘I think our mentality is different, we are closer to the mentality of European manufacturers. We want to have everything faster, I think the most important moment will be between February and July, it will be essential to evolve the bike in that phase and then we will see the change in mentality in having everything and developing the bike much faster. There were improvements today, but we are still far behind the other riders. We have to work hard and understand what we can improve to be better.’
